Check out Jeff Corwin’s video thank you to the National Association of Biology Teachers for their new partnership with Amphibian Ark. It’s being shown at the NABT’s conference in Atlanta tonight. I remember watching another video of Jeff on YouTube in which he explained his roots in education, having studied at Bridgewater State College, the first teachers college in the U.S. … that his best friend is a teacher … and that he considers it the most important job in the world. So Jeff Corwin talking to teachers about the amphibian crisis is a natural fit.
The frogs have a terrific ally in Jeff Corwin (CNN Planet in Peril with Anderson Cooper, The Jeff Corwin Experience on Animal Planet).
This is really important. Consider the sheer, numerical power of the partnership:
There are 6,000 biology teachers that are in the association…
And let’s say each of them has 100 students…
And each of those students has a sibling, and 1.5 parents, and 2 grandparents, and 2 close friends — and tells them all about the crisis
That’s 6,000 teachers, 600,000 students, another 600,000 sisters and brothers, 900,000 parents, 1.2 million grandparents, and another 1.2 million friends — all informed, spreading the word, demanding and taking action
Like a frog jumping into a pond, the ripple effect of biology teachers rallying behind Amphibian Ark can be transformational for this cause.
There’s a story in the news about a lawsuit against the federal government over the failure to adequately protect the Mississippi gopher frog. This species, according to Kevin Zippel, program director for Amphibian Ark, may be the worst off in the nation. (Mind you, Kevin’s not the one behind the lawsuit.)
The chronology of good intentions for the Mississippi gopher frog is interesting:
“Since 1988…” – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been working with the U.S. Forest Service since 1988 to protect the last remaining Mississippi gopher frog population. — U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service bulletin about the Mississippi gopher frog.
“2001…”– “This species is a unique part of the natural heritage of the South that could slide into extinction if we do not take action to protect and conserve it.” - Dec. 4, 2001, quote from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service news release.
“2007…” — “It’s certainly one of the most endangered species in the entire country. There’s about 2,000 spotted owls, and we’re talking about 200 gopher frogs.” - Quote from the policy director for the Center for Biological Diversity.
We are approaching, then, 20 years of trying to save this species. It miraculously hangs on from three ponds in southern Mississippi. I asked Kevin if this is a species that needs Amphibian Ark’s help (duh, I ask the sharpest questions), and he replied that:
“There is a captive program started for this species, but to date, zero breeding. What they really want is a modest facility adjacent to the natural breeding site, to take advantage of natural weather patterns.”
Amphibian Ark has started providing me with lists of the species most in need of being placed in protective custody — meaning, they can’t be saved in the wild and need to be placed with zoos and other host locations before they disappear. Here’s the first installment — the European “highest priority” list.
As funds become available, the species listed below will be among the first to hop onto the Ark. Click on the species name and you’ll go to a page that tells more.
Catty posed this to me a couple of days ago: ”Hey, I was wondering if there’s anything people can do aside from blogging and write checks. Some of my fondest memories involve the time I spent watching amphibians and reptiles- especially frogs. I’d love to see a blog about what the average joe/joette can do, and also a list of other organizations working with Amphibian Ark that maybe needs support as well.”
First, here’s a “12 things to do list.” And at the bottom, I’ll put links to other organizations that would love your help.
(I know you know this already, but…) Donate. The only thing standing in the way of saving 500 amphibian species from extinction is $50-$60 million dollars. You can help pay for the physical implementation of the Amphibian Ark plan by donating through the PayPal button or sending a check to the address on the Ark’s donor page.
Send letters and emails to your elected officials. Governments across the world can allocate funds to pay for the protection of species in their regions. There are a lot of issues demanding their attention, so if you want to see your tax dollars working to avert this mass extinction, you may need to croak (er, speak) pretty loud. Here’s a link to a site that makes it easy to contact your U.S. congressional rep. Here’s how to contact the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, which includes all the wildlife and conservation areas of the federal government.
Learn what your zoo or botanical garden is doing in this effort, and volunteer to help them. Just call them and see where the conversation leads.
Call your state conservation department and ask if they need volunteers to help with any amphibian work or public education campaign. Here’s a link to a site that lists all the state conservation departments.
Ask your child, grandchild, or favorite niece’s teacher to invite the zoo or conservaton department into the classroom to talk about the problem.
Cut and paste this post from my blog and forward it to 10 friends, and ask them to do the same.
Call the science or environment reporter at your local newspaper, and ask him or her to do a story on the topic. Do the same with your favorite TV meteorologist.
Ask your mayor or city council to proclaim Feb. 29, 2008 (yes, it’s Leap Day) as the official “Day of the Frog” to encourage the public to get educated on the issue. You can include any of the documents from the Amphibian Ark Web site as attachments to your letters or emails.
Ask your favorite radio personality to get behind the cause and conduct a “frog-a-thon” to raise funds for Amphibian Ark.
Make a funny leapfrog video — yeah, you and some friends leapfrogging — display www.amphibianark.org at the end of it — and post it on YouTube and send it to friends.
Reduce your impact on the environment. This great post explains more.
Didn’t want to end the day on the tone of that last post. Enjoy this story of high school sweethearts who went on to become research biologists, get married (althought I’m not sure it was in that order) and, today, track frogs in Alabama. They’re studying the effects of the practice of controlled burns (of forest land) on amphibian and reptile life. Insert “burning love” pun here.
I did some posts earlier this week about the biodiversity summit in France – which was focused on creating an IPCC-like reporting organization about plant and animal life. Well, a few hours ago, this sobering take on the conference was issued by the publisher of The Daily Telegraph in the UK: “A three-year French-led effort to set up a powerful international scientific body advising on the threats to the variety of life on Earth has ended in embarrassing stalemate.” Fingers are being pointed. But it’s just one story and we’ll have to wait and see.
In the meantime, those who care greatly about the creatures of the earth can be thankful — yes, on the eve of Thanksgiving here in the States — for individuals who don’t wait for large international bodies to reach consensus. I’m thinking about somebody like Jeff Corwin who held up the Panama Golden Frog yesterday on Ellen and asked people to go to Amphibian Ark’s Web site. I think about Sir David Attenborough, Jean-Michel Cousteau, zoo chieftains around the world, researchers in India, Atlanta, Carbondale. People who write blogs about wildlife and conservation.
Amphibians are the canaries in the coal mine, medical marvels, and innocent creatures. They face the most significant mass extinction since the dinosaurs. The main reason they will disappear is because we will choose to allow it. You can be one of the people who stops it. Visit www.amphibianark.org. Learn. Donate. And tell others about it.
